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Uruguay may end persecution of transgender people

In Uruguay, a new bill could pay compensation to transgender citizens for past persecution.

This bill will act in different areas.

Firstly, it will provide a better recognition of transgender people. Even though in 2009 Uruguay approved a bill allowing transgender people to legally change their name and gender on their official documents, there are still difficulties to be recognized. This bill will make the process easier.

A study conducted in 2016 highlighted the fact that 75% of transgender people in Uruguay did not finish their studies. A part of them did not even finish high school.

The bill will provide for transgender students born after 1975 with a scholarship.

A monthly pension will be distributed so that they can access studies like any other student, allowing them a better future

Finally, this bill will also serve as an anti-discrimination plan across the country.

How has this government come up with such a bill?

Well, all this was done thanks to a trans woman, Sandra Valin, who with others continued to fight for her own recognition and protections.

She told Market Place News: "When I was a kid I was a target because I was flamboyant and feminine, it was horrible, and it didn’t end with the dictatorship — the persecution continued into the 1990s."

In the 1970s and 1980s, the police and the state arrested and tortured transgender people.

Decades later, the government is now preparing to fight persecution and allow transgender people to be part of the country.